TechCrunch reports on new Facebook application - one that doesn't exactly exist

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Published 4:00 am, Saturday, September 12, 2009

In case you missed it, those fun-lovin' folks over at Facebook pulled a fast one on TechCrunch, the popular technology blog.

TechCrunch, which prides itself on its solid coverage of the tech world, thought it discovered that Facebook had unleashed a new Fax This Photo feature on the site.

It was first noticed around 5 p.m. Thursday by TechCrunch's Jason Kincaid. After trying it, Kincaid e-mailed Facebook about it, didn't hear back, so he posted a blog headlined: "Facebook Now Lets You Fax Your Photos. I Have No Idea Why Anyone Would Want To Do This."

End of story, right?

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Not quite.

Turns out the tool was a joke devised not by some hacker but by Facebook. According to a post by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington:

"Jason then called Facebook PR. Jaime Schopflin took the call and, apparently, couldn't stop laughing for five minutes. Between laughs while catching her breath she mentioned something about this being a joke, that nobody but us could see it, and that they were placing bets around the office on how long before we noticed it and posted. And something else about teaching us to contact them before posting."

To their credit, the folks at TechCrunch owned up to being pranked and chalked it up to payback for barbs the site has directed at Facebook over the years. But in a post detailing the joke, Arrington hinted that it wasn't over yet:

"You won this round, Facebook. Enjoy your victory."

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